Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad Rural police on Sunday arrested Dashrath Patel, a promoter of Popular Builders, in connection with a land fraud case dating back to 1982. Patel, who had been declared a proclaimed absconder, was apprehended from Nathdwara in Rajasthan, said Ahmedabad Rural Superintendent of Police Omprakash Jat.

Police said the offence was registered in 2022 based on findings of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the district collectorate. “After exhausting all legal remedies, the accused absconded. He has now been arrested and brought to Gujarat,” Jat said.

As per the FIR, complainant Ramkrushna Acharya, a resident of Green Leaves Apartments in Sola, alleged that Patel, along with Raman Patel and Saryudasji Bava, forged documents to illegally grab a plot in Godhavi village of Ahmedabad district.

The land, measuring about 63,772 square metres, originally belonged to Acharya’s grandfather, Shatrughnadasji. Acharya stated that Shatrughnadasji had only one son, Gordhandasji, and died on February 4, 1991. However, revenue records allegedly showed Saryudasji as his son, facilitating the transfer of the land in his name on November 13, 1982.

Police further said that Raman Patel and Dashrath Patel later got the same land transferred to their names on August 5, 1983. The complainant also alleged that official documents falsely recorded Shatrughnadasji’s year of death as 2001 instead of 1991.

Officials of the Local Crime Branch (LCB) said Acharya had earlier approached the SIT probing land-grabbing cases. The probe reportedly uncovered discrepancies in the records, leading to the registration of an FIR at Bopal police station in 2022. DeshGujarat